Bowling

01Feb07

A few years ago my son Shane’s third grade class went on a field trip to the bowling alley. I volunteered to go with the class. We got a little tour in the back of how everything works and then got to play a game.

The teacher, Mr. C, had never been bowling before. He was a small man. I don’t think he was taller than me, and I’m 5’2″. He was definitely skinnier than me. He was older than me. He seemed to be burned out on teaching. Sometimes I would chat with him after school somedays while I waited for my other son to leave his classroom. He wore this weird hat and funky arm-length gloves to protect him from the sun. I’m pretty sure he was not married and didn’t have any kids of his own.

Anyway, back to bowling… Mr. C selected a hot-pink ball. All of the colorful balls were the light ones, like 6 lbs or less, for the kids. There were some regular black balls that were light, too, but he picked a hot-pink one. When it was his turn to bowl, he did this froo froo ballerina skip thing before releasing the ball.

It was not manly.

I went home that day and thanked God that my boyfriend used black, heavy, manly bowling balls and didn’t do little skips that would rival my own femininity when bowling.

Back in the old days, we didn’t have no Froo Froo ballerina bowlers! Men bowled like MEN. One day Milton Smothers brought his son to the local bowling alley one saturday, and he did the froo froo skip. Well, when we got done with him, he didn’t do THAT no more..